I Must Not Fear

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-​killer.
Fear is the little-​death that brings total oblit­er­a­tion.
I will face my fear.
I will per­mit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be noth­ing.
Only I will remain.

- Frank Her­bert, Dune.

Although I doubt he (or is it “she”?) was not the first to argue it, I remem­ber of all sources, Mar­i­lyn Man­son was the first per­son I heard say that “they make you fear so you will con­sume.” Which I find all too true — com­pa­nies are hold­ing up this ideal of life, and soci­ety just accepts it and inter­nal­izes it. We then fear that we can’t live up to the ideal, so we’ll buy any­thing that takes us the com­pa­nies offer us that closer to that ideal. Any­thing that will make us stronger, smarter, pret­tier, safer, health­ier, wealth­ier… bet­ter in any and every way.

I con­sider myself pretty fru­gal, but I’m not above it, either. Lately, I’ve had a lit­tle extra money, and I find myself blow­ing it on ran­dom stuff. Gotta re-​examine my pri­or­i­ties. True and last­ing hap­pi­ness and fear­less­ness must come from within!

Tags: Will F